on being tranquil within storms and silences

Go calmly through life. The great spiritual leaders tell us this, and I see that perhaps I belong to the sect of wild fools, because I could not bear to waste this wondrous life in going calmly, detached, placid amongst the flowers and the gorgeous fury ...

I want to dance, and run, and thrown myself into starlit oceans and my own starlit soul, and weep when weeping is not called for, and laugh a long giddy laugh into the night, and welcome the fierce white poetry of rain on water. I want to be as thoroughly as I can inside life.

It feels like a gift and a trial to be here. I don't want to sit nice and quiet through one minute. Every scar adorns me. Every laugh lights me. I want to tumble finally into the otherworld with my hair all messed up and my soul filled with fabulous song.

This doesn't mean that I rave all over the planet, or even the neighbourhood. It may mean I sit in one place for a long, hushed time. Going as far down as possible into being. Feeling every breath like a hurricane.

And when they ask me of heaven, and why I want to involve myself in this illusion, this fallen world, (depending on your religion) when I could be focussing on the sacred promise to come, I will say to them that digging in the soil lifts you closer to the sky ... touching the heart draws you beyond ... and the more I experience this life the more its covers slip away like dead leaves, and I see all the fakery, and I see all the certainties, and I hear the faery song.

If I was calm, I would not traipse through nights listening to a low murmur of taniwha, watching a dance of stars that should not be moving, feeling the invisible beauty all around me, and I would be forced to believe - to have faith, sitting calmly in my well-cleaned living room or in my lotus pose - rather than going knee-deep, heart-deep, experiencing (without any need for naming) amongst the wild magical things that are rooted beyond the edge of the world.

possibly one of the most beautiful posts i have had the pleasure of reading. so right in so many ways ~ we should all dive head-first deep into the ebbing and flowing waters of life! peace is valuable but i believe peace can be found in the frenzy of fearless involvement.

Thank you. And I believe peace is different from calm. Calm is a behaviour, peace is an experience deep within our bodies and souls. Thank you for your comment because yesterday I was trying to sort through my feelings about peace, and reading your words made them come together for me.

I've found a message in these beautiful words (and pictures!) that I needed to hear. There's much in life to relish and revel in and I'm sometimes caught between this and chasing the detached peace I feel I "should". Thanks for the sharing these wise thoughts. :)

I don't know what to say...only that I thoroughly connected with your words. And I agree that leaving this world with ones hair messed up and filled with fabulous song is the only way to go. What is the point I say if you don't make a point.

HEARTWILD BOOKS

In the quiet hours, the in-between moments and the half-light, I like to write. My books are made from fairytale shadow and old magical songs. They speak about dreams, lost wishes, longing for something beyond the self, and always about love. They have been not-for-profit fundraisers. You can read about them here. I am currently writing something new.

DREAMING TALES

ELSEWHERE

THE HEROINE'S MYTHIC JOURNEY

I believe we have a need these days especially for a womanly kind of story: one which travels like the moon, in an old circle, gathering things to create richness and depth, exploring layers, going back over its steps. And so I have created a storytelling (and therapeutic) template for the mythic heroine. You can read about it here.

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